Penang's transport plan - just give us buses

Star Online - Transport plan tops CM’s list (extracts):

NEWLY sworn-in Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow says the state will be “pushing further” for the approval of the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP).

“We may not get the approval in 100 days.

“However, we want to push further so everything can be ready when the plan is tabled before the Federal agency.

“Everything needs be in order at the technical level.

“We want to seek help from the new Finance Minister to help us get due attention from the national leadership,” he said in a press conference in Komtar in Penang yesterday.

My dear CM Chow, speaking as bloke born and bred in Penang (Island please, wakakaka), can we have our wonderful yester-years' bus system back, to wit, the buses of:

• Lim Seng Seng Bus
• Hin
• Yellow Bus
• City Council Bus 

For years Chinese Penangites have considered only the island as Penang, with the mainland referred to as 'koay kang' (translated: 'diseberang sungai' or 'across the river').

Hmmm, I wonder why our elder Penangites considered the channel as a river, wakakaka.

One of the major requirements for Penang is to have a good public transport system, whether it is light rail, bus system or taxi system or a combination of all, doesn't matter, provided it's affordable and effective.

I believe a well networked bus system should be good enough as I grew up with such a system. But I have to acknowledge today's population in Penang may well require much more.

But alas, our (previous, wakakaka) bureaucracy had been the usual obstacle.

My uncles told me that three private bus companies and one City Council owned bus system, which served Penang Island so well in earlier years, namely:

(i) Lim Seng Seng (Prangin Road - Ayer Itam),

(ii) Yellow Bus (Prangin Road - Teluk Kumbar),

(iii) Hin Bus Co (Prangin Road - Teluk Bahang) and 

(iv) the City Council Bus (Jetty - Ayer Itam)

... were lost - indeed, all of them due to the new guys on the block. Part of the problem was rumoured to be that the 3 private bus companies were 100% Chinese owned, and by families or kongsi's.

Lim Seng Seng Bus 

   

Yellow Bus 

Hin Bus 

City Council Bus 

On the mainland there were more than a couple of bus companies (exactly how many, my uncles didn't say) providing transportation to areas north and south of Butterworth town.

Thus, if we allow private bus companies to serve the proposed new urban centres in the mainland, it's more likely to succeed, than to leave such expectations of transport service in the capricious over-controlling hands of our bureaucratic officials. But then, why should there be commonsense in our planning?

Mind you, before, many blamed a certain PM for giving priority to Proton cars than public transportation. But can we hope for better things today.

That's an answer for CM Chow Kon Yeow.